Jakarta (ANTARA) - The Financial Services Authority's (OJK's) Literacy, Financial Inclusion, and Communication Department Head Aman Santosa affirmed that the OJK continues to increase public financial literacy and inclusion, especially in frontier, outermost, and underdeveloped (3T) areas.

Hence, to this end, the OJK is implementing a series of financial education programs in Ternate and Morotai, North Maluku Province, on June 6-9, 2023.

"North Maluku was chosen as the location of the activity because based on the 2022 National Financial Literacy and Inclusion Survey (SNLIK), the financial literacy level of the community is still below the average national financial literacy rate of 49.68 percent, which is 49.35 percent," Santosa noted in a statement in Jakarta, Wednesday.

The series of educational activities included Training of Trainers (ToT) for teachers of elementary schools in Ternate City, implementation of the Financial Proficient Village Program in Morotai Island District, and Financial Education for 3T Communities in Morotai Island District.

The material presented at the ToT activities included increasing the understanding of financial products and services, such as banking, financing, capital markets, pension funds, insurance, Islamic finance, pawnshops, and illegal online loans.

"OJK hopes that the ToT financial education activities for teachers can speed up the process of public financial education, bearing in mind that teachers are role models, so they can spread the knowledge they gain to their students or to the surrounding community," Santosa stated.

In addition to activities in Ternate City, the OJK also organized the Financial Proficient Village Program and financial education activities for the community in Morotai Island District.

The Financial Proficient Village Program aims to empower village officials through increasing the understanding of financial products and services, financial planning, and investment alert materials, as well as illegal online loans that are expected to be continued by village officials to the community through Community Training.

"Thus, village officials can make decisions based on information that can have a positive impact on the financial well-being of the community," he remarked.

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Translator: Sanya Dinda Susanti, Cindy Frishanti Octavia
Editor: Sri Haryati
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